These Cars Are Dying in 2019 and May Never Return Again

Every year, we compile a list of the vehicles that will die in the following year. In most cases, when a nameplate dies, it's for good. In some instances, certain models are retired temporarily, their names destined to reappear on a redesigned version later. In 2019, only a small handful of cars are being killed off, although we should point out that not all of these cars will vanish as soon as the calendar flips over to January 2019. Some, in fact, will have 2019 model years assigned to them but will be discontinued at some point during the '19 calendar year, hence their inclusion here.

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Car and DriverA.J. Mueller

Alfa Romeo 4C Coupe

The 4C coupe spearheaded Alfa Romeo's return to the U.S. market in 2014, and it's the first member of the newly naturalized brand's lineup to go. We're pouring one out for the characterful mid-engined sports car, which forgoes the sort of creature comforts, that, say, the similarly priced Porsche 718 Cayman provides in favor of providing buyers a supercar-like lightweight carbon-fiber monocoque body.

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Car and Driver

Buick Cascada

Before Buick co-opted the name Cascada, it belonged to a German electronic music group behind the 2007 hit "Everytime We Touch." Funny, because the Buick also was German, being a rebadged Opel and all. We didn't get to touch the Cascada much, as it has been on sale only since 2016, a time period during which it racked up fairly mediocre sales.

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Car and DriverSteve Siler

Cadillac ATS Sedan

Consider the Cadillac ATS sedan's goodbye temporary: It soon will gain a slightly smaller successor dubbed AT4. In the meantime, the ATS nameplate begins its slow death at the end of 2018 with the erasure of the sedan model from Cadillac's production plans. The four-door's ATS coupe sibling lives on through 2019 but will meet the same fate by the close of that year; we don't anticipate the coupe will be resurrected as an AT4 variant, meaning it'll sit six feet under for good.

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Chevrolet City Express

Contrary to the backdrop of the image above, rebadging a small Nissan commercial van as a Chevrolet is not the perfect recipe, no matter the resultant functionality, maneuverability, or efficiency. Based on the Nissan NV200, a four-cylinder, front-wheel-drive compact van which can boast that its greatest achievement has been winning the $1 billion contract as the New York City taxi fleet's mandated vehicle, the Chevy was a sales dud. It is survived by the full-size, centuries-old Chevrolet Express and GMC Savannah work vans.

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Ferrari California T

California is canceled. Okay, the state of California isn't going anywhere, but Ferrari's eponymous folding-hardtop sports car is. There will not be a 2019 California T because Ferrari has replaced it with the similar but markedly better Portofino.

Similar to the Ford Fiesta also on this list, the Focus has an all-new replacement everywhere else in the world but here. Instead, Americans are having their Foci options reduced to zero (production ended earlier in 2018) to make way for more Ford-branded crossovers, SUVs, and trucks. Although there was a chance Ford might send the new Focus Active here, the Subaru-like take on the new Focus hatchback with SUV-ish styling is being kept out of the States thanks to President Trump's tariffs.

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Car and DriverMICHAEL SIMARI

Ford Taurus

There was a time when the Ford Taurus was the best-selling car in America (for several years running!) and impressive enough to earn a 10Best Cars award from us. Today, the Taurus is an unexceptional, aging large sedan. Ford will wind down production in March 2019, both because the Taurus's more successful platform mate, the Explorer SUV, is being replaced soon by an all-new model and as part of its general abandonment of cars in favor of trucks and SUVs.

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Toyota Prius V

At the end of 2018, the Toyota Prius V hybrid is taking five. We've spotted prototypes of its replacement undergoing testing, but it isn't yet known whether that car will keep the V name when it appears in production form.

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Volkswagen Beetle

One of the top-selling nameplates in automotive history, Volkswagen's Beetle turns out the motel-room light and rolls over on its dirty twin mattress for the long sleep at the end of 2018, forgotten. After the late-1990s excitement surrounding Volkswagen's resurrection of the Bug as the front-drive, water-cooled bubble known as the New Beetle, the Beetle's popularity waned. Even a toughening of the styling for 2012 failed to keep the Bug's appeal from squishing thinner still. Will the Beetle ever return? Maybe; there are rumors out there that VW will bring its People's Car back as an electric. The drive motor is said to be where the original Beetle's engine was: the rear, where it's supposed to be.